Most university students fail to tell apart real scientific news and fake ones on social media

The results of this investigation show that uncertainty is the predominant reaction, to the point that, in some cases, up to 75% of students feel hesitant to evaluate the veracity of the analysed news articles. The project concludes that it is necessary to reinforce scientific and media literacy in order to improve the students’ ability to identify reliable information.

The study was carried out via a survey given to 221 university students who were asked to assess the veracity of four news articles related to scientific topics, some of which were real and others were fake. The participants had to indicate if they considered each news article to be real or fake, as well as how sure they were of their response (certain or doubtful). Furthermore, they were asked to justify the reasons behind their decision by pointing out some aspects, such as the credibility of the source, the content of the argument, the images, or if they had already seen the information in other sources or social media. Afterwards, the research team analyses the students’ answers with comparative statistical techniques in order to identify patterns in their correct and incorrect answers and the criteria employed by the students to evaluate the credibility of the scientific information.

The results are surprising. A real news article about the discovery of a child mummy in the Atacama Desert was considered fake or doubtful by 64% of the students, while another real article about the reduction of the ozone hole was incorrectly identified by over half of the participants.

As for the real news article on the impact risk of an asteroid and NASA’s plans to prevent it, 48.4% of students also failed or doubted in their assessment. Conversely, the fake news article about the alleged discovery of an alien in Egypt was correctly identified by most of them (83.7% of correct guesses), although 16.3% of students considered it to be true or probably true.

Arguments over evidence
The analysis shows that university students tend to base their evaluation on contextual factors – such as the rhetorical strength of the argument, the headline style or the presence of images – more so than on fact-checking data or sources. Encountering the information previously on social media or other sources significantly influences their perception of credibility as well..

Researcher M. Carmen Bellver Moreno, of theUniversitat de Valènciaemphasises that “the results manifest the importance of incorporating scientific strategies that help students critically analyse the information circulating the internet and social media”. In her judgement, “learning how to contrast data, identifying reliable sources and apply their own scientific method criteria is fundamental so that students can differentiate between rigorous scientific information and deceitful contents”.

María Esther del Moral,researcher from the Universidad de Oviedo,“These results show that many students do not have the solid criteria to determine if a scientific news article is real or fake, which reflects the need to reinforce their training in critical thinking.” Similarly, Jonathan Castañeda Fernández, who is also a researcher from the Asturian university, points out that “a cohesive argument’s appearance can be very persuasive, even when the information is not backed up by scientific evidence”.

Lastly, Nerea López Bouzas, a researcher from the same institution, highlights the fact that “spreading scientific information on social media and digital platforms requires to reinforce the scientific and media literacy of students in order for them to learn how to contrast sources and critically evaluate their contents”.

The conclusion from this study is precisely that promoting critical thinking, verifying sources and using tools in order to contrast information is the key to help young people to tell apart reliable scientific information and misinformation. Moreover, some authors suggest the need to integrate these competences more explicitly in the education process and teaching science.

Reference to the article: Del-Moral-Pérez, M. E., Castañeda-Fernández, J., López-Bouzas, N., i Bellver-Moreno, M. C. (2026). “Verdad o ficción: certeza e incertidumbre de universitarios al discriminar noticias científicas”. Enseñanza de las Ciencias. Revista de investigación y experiencias didácticas, 44(1), 5–24. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/ensciencias.6431